ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - December 26th

"MANIAC" released in 1980

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Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) is a deranged man that due to his suffering from his abusive mother when he was a child, he becomes a serial killer that murders young women and scalps them to add towards his mannequin collection. After he awakens in his bed from having a nightmare about killing a couple on a beach, he dresses himself and leaves his resided one-room apartment - consisted of paintings, a framed picture of his mother, and a collection of mannequins - towards downtown Manhattan. When Frank is randomly invited inside a hotel by a prostitute (Rita Montone), she kisses with him before he abruptly strangles the woman, then scalps her with a utility razor while on a range of disturbance. He then returns home and adds the hooker to his mannequin collection by placing her clothing and nailing the scalp onto the mannequin; he tells himself in his mind that beauty is a crime punishable by death.

Sometime later, he dresses again and takes a collection of weaponry with him, including a double-barreled shotgun, before leaving. He drives around Brooklyn and the Queens area, where he finds a couple exiting a local disco and parking near the side of the Verrazano Bridge. When the boyfriend (Tom Savini) starts up the vehicle after his date sees Frank spying on them, Frank kills the couple with his shotgun and then adds the murdered woman to his mannequin collection back at his apartment. After seeing his recent crime committed on television, he begins to talk to himself and the mannequins and sobs himself to sleep.

During the next day in Central Park, Frank follows a photographer named Anna (Caroline Munro) after she takes a photo of him and a little girl riding on a bicycle in the distance. At night, Frank sees a nurse (Kelly Piper) leaving the Roosevelt Hospital, where he then stalks her inside a subway station and murders her with a bayonet before adding her to his mannequin collection. Days later, Frank heads to Anna's apartment and is invited inside by Anna after she recognizes him from the photo she took earlier. While on a dinner date, he shows her a photo of his mother who died in a car crash years before. A few days later, Frank is invited by Anna to a studio where she is taking photos of models at a photography session, and she introduces one of her models Rita (Abigail Clayton) to him. After seeing the two talking and holding hands, he steals Rita's necklace left aside and leaves. Later that same night, he arrives at Rita's apartment to give her the necklace, and then later sneaks in and attacks her. With Frank's madness escalating, Anna invites him to a show, but make a stop at the cemetery first to visit Frank's mother's grave. Amid a flurry of hallucinations, Frank finally snaps and Anna is forced to defend herself after a long, harrowing chase through the cemetery!

TRIVIA:   In order to keep costs down, several porn actresses, such as Abigail Clayton and Sharon Mitchell, were hired to play the victims and other minor female roles.

Top:   Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) nails the scalp of one of his victims to a mannequin!;

Above:   Photographer Anna (Caroline Munro) becomes friends with Frank, unaware of his true nature.

Director William Lustig stated that co-writer and star Joe Spinell had to prepare for the lead villain role of New York serial killer Frank Zito by doing research on real life serial killers such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, David 'Son of Sam' Berkowitz, and others as well as he went to strange excite places to really get into the role. Also, Lustig stated that there was even a real murder of a prostitute in the same hotel (the Hotel St. James) where they were filming Joe as Frank's scene killing a prostitute around the same time and the real life killer was never caught. People dressed up fake mannequins with the victims clothes to see if they can identify them as well what the character Frank does in the movie with his victims.

According to Lustig, Italian horror director Dario Argento was supposed to be involved as co-producer because his wife, Daria Nicolodi, at the time was originally offered the protagonist role but was unavailable (she was unable to go to New York for filming because she was still filming her scenes for Argento's own movie Inferno (1980) in Italy). Joe Spinell was also working in between the filming of Maniac (1980) with other movie projects, one of them being Nighthawks (1981) which began filming before production on Maniac ended, in which Spinell cut his hair short and shaved off his mustache to play a clean-cut, high-ranking New York police official for Nighthawks. In a few scenes (most of them being where Frank Zito is driving his car), Spinell is wearing a fake mustache with a long-haired wig under his cap.

Maniac's original budget of $48,000 was raised through $6,000 from Spinell - which was part of his $10,000 salary from the movie Cruising (1980) that he recently completed before filming began - $12,000 came from Andrew W. Garroni and the rest ($30,000) came from Lustig, which was from their profits in the adult film business. The three of them put all that money into a stock market account and the amount grew to $135,000 as production continued. It was British producer Judd Hamilton who came up with the rest of the money (around $200,000) to complete the movie as part of a condition that his then-wife, Caroline Munro, would be cast as the heroine.

Above:   In a brutal finale, Frank hallucinates he is being torn apart by the mannequins of his victims!

Principal photography began on October 21, 1979, in New York, where many scenes had to be filmed guerrilla-style because the production could not afford city permits and had to have been filmed quickly and afterwards the crew had to run away before the cops arrived. One such scene was the Disco-boy car scene, which was filmed in it's entirity in just over one hour! Loosely inspired by the 'Son of Sam' killings of serial killer David Berkowitz (who shot people in parked cars with a .44 Special revolver) the scene, which was filmed in slow motion from three different camera angles and lit entirely by the reflected headlights of the car, is extremely graphic and realistic in its depiction of the damage caused by the head being shot at point blank range by 12-gauge buckshot. Savini was a Vietnam War veteran and used his firsthand knowledge of the carnage he saw on the battlefield to create the effect.

The dummy used for the exploding head scene had been used extensively by Savini for effects in Dawn of the Dead (1978). Because they would only have one chance to film the scene where Tom Savini's character gets shot, Savini decided that he should be the one to pull the trigger. He said it felt a little weird shooting the dummy he had created of himself in the face. After its use in this film, it was so saturated in fake blood and gore that it was decided to retire the dummy (which Tom had named "Boris"). According to Savini, the dummy was locked in the trunk of the car used in the shotgun scene and sunk in the East River.

The 1970s dark blue Buick Electra car that is driven by the killer was owned at the time by director William Lustig which was purchased from a used car lot for $200. The car was permanently damaged late in filming when a camera mount set up by the crew to film a scene with Frank and Anna in the car inadvertently damaged the steering wheel mechanism wire which forced Lustig to get rid of the car which became impossible to steer afterwords. 

[looks down at his latest victim]
Frank Zito: Now you tell me what I should do. I heard about it, I always do. I can't go out for a minute. It's impossible. Fancy girls, in their fancy dresses and lipstick, laughing and dancing. Should you stop them? I can't stop them. But you do, don't you? And they can't laugh and they can't dance anymore. You've got to stop, or they'll take you away from me. I will never, ever, let them take you away from me. You're mine now forever. And, I'm so happy.

Top:   Co-producer and star Joe Spinell with effects maestro Tom Savini;

Above:   Elijah Woods as Frank Zito in the 2012 remake

Maniac was never given a rating by the MPAA, as the filmmakers knew it would receive the dreaded X rating for the violence and gore contained and simply refused to submit it for any review, because at the time it was easier for unrated films to be shown in theatres than X-rated ones due to the latter always being seen (even if, as in this case, inaccurately) as pornographic. To offset the lack of classification, the film's distributor, Analysis Film Releasing Corporation, had a unique campaign to support its release in New York: mini-screen kiosks were set up in front of theatres that were showing the film in 1980 that had several minutes of uncut footage, including gory murders. However, the campaign backfired when movie critic Gene Siskel - who was so disgusted by the infamous "shotgun head explosion" scene that he walked out of the movie, saying on his television show with Roger Ebert that the film "could not redeem itself after the ultra-violence" that he had seen -  condemned it on both his regular TV reporting and "At The Movies", leading to a backlash against the film's violence and the cancellation of plans to have the kiosks used in such major markets as Chicago and Los Angeles.

A majority of reviews at the time of Maniac's release were similar to Siskel's, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing, "Good sense, if not heaven, should protect anyone who thinks he likes horror films from wasting a price of admission on Maniac, a movie that shows how an aging, pot-bellied maniac slices up young women of no great intelligence." Contemporary reviews have been a little more receptive, with Stuart Galbraith IV (DVD Talk) saying of the film "Despite some good direction and a sincere, even daring performance by character actor Joe Spinell (Rocky), who also co-produced and co-wrote its screenplay, Maniac (1980) is alternately repellent and boring, despite the obvious intelligence that went into its making. A low-budget slasher film notable for its extremely graphic splatter effects by Tom Savini - who also appears in the picture - Maniac is mostly a character study, anticipating the much superior (if no less unpleasant) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)." Tom Becker of DVD Verdict said "That the film is so effective is due in no small part to the performance of Joe Spinell as Frank, the schlubby-looking guy whose darkness overwhelms him. This is not the standard, amateurish, paint-by-numbers horror villain turn. Spinell creates a fully formed portrait of this monster that goes far beyond the surface. He mutters to himself, talks to mannequins, growls like an animal when stalking his prey—yet he can be charming as well, and while the pairing of Spinell and Munro as lovers has a definite Beauty and the Beast quality to it, it's not entirely unbelievable. Had Maniac been more of a mainstream film, Spinell might have been remembered as one of the great horror heavies."

Spinell planned to make a sequel to Manic, entitled Mr. Robbie, a remake of the 1973 film The Psychopath, about a children's television host who murders the abusive parents of his fans. A short promotion film was made in 1986 which was filmed, produced and directed by Buddy Giovinazzo and written by Spinell and Joe Cirillo, but Spinell was unable to find financial backers. After nearly three years, financing was indeed raised and it was scheduled to go into production in March 1989, but the sudden death of Spinell two months prior cancelled all plans for the sequel.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   43%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - December 26th
"THE EXORCIST" released in 1973

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Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) is a veteran Catholic priest who is on an archaeological dig in Iraq. When he finds an amulet that resembles the statue of Pazuzu, a demon whom Merrin had defeated years before, Merrin realizes the demon has returned to seek revenge.

Meanwhile, in Georgetown, actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is living on location with her pre-teen daughter Regan (Linda Blair), where Chris has just wrapped the final scene of a film about student activism directed by her friend and associate Burke Dennings. After playing with a Ouija board and contacting a supposedly imaginary friend named "Captain Howdy", Regan begins acting strangely, including making mysterious noises, stealing, constantly using obscene language, and exhibiting abnormal strength. Chris hosts a party, only for Regan to come downstairs unannounced, telling one of the guests, who is an astronaut, "You're gonna die up there", and then urinating on the floor. Regan also causes her bed to shake violently, much to her and the mother's horror. Chris consults physicians, but Dr. Klein and his associates find nothing medically wrong with her daughter, despite Regan undergoing a battery of diagnostic tests.

One night when Chris is out, Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran) is babysitting Regan, only for Chris to come home to hear he has died falling out the window. Although this is assumed to have been an accident, given Burke's history of heavy drinking, his death is investigated by Lieutenant William Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb), who interviews Chris, as well as priest and psychiatrist Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), who has lost faith in God after his frail mother died.

The doctors, thinking that Regan only believes she is possessed, recommend an exorcism to be performed. Chris arranges a meeting with Karras. After recording Regan speaking backwards and witnessing the etching of the words "Help Me" on her stomach, Karras is convinced Regan is possessed. Believing her soul is in danger, he decides to perform an exorcism. The experienced Merrin is selected to do so instead, with Karras present to assist. The questions become whether Fathers Merrin and Karras have a strong enough faith to exorcise the demon and what they are willing to do to achieve their mission?

TRIVIA:   William Friedkin had to take an all-British crew to film in Iraq because the US had no diplomatic relations with Iraq at that time. They were allowed to film on conditions that included teaching Iraqi filmmakers advanced film techniques as well as how to make fake blood.

Top and Above:   Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) is possessed by an ancient evil demon, faced once before by Father Lancaster Merrin (Max von Sydow)

William Peter Blatty based his original novel were inspired by the 1949 exorcism performed on an anonymous young boy known as "Roland Doe" or "Robbie Mannheim" (pseudonyms) by the Jesuit priest Fr. William S. Bowdern, who formerly taught at both St. Louis University and St. Louis University High School. Doe's family became convinced the boy's aggressive behavior was attributable to demonic possession, and called upon the services of several Catholic priests, including Bowdern, to perform the rite of exorcism. It was one of three exorcisms to have been sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the United States at that time. Blatty's novel changed several details of the case, such as changing the gender of the allegedly possessed victim from a boy into a girl and changing the alleged victim's age.

Aspects of the character Father Merrin were based on the British archaeologist Gerald Lankester Harding, who had excavated the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls had been found and whom Blatty had met in Beirut. Blatty has stated that Harding "was the physical model in my mind when I created the character [of Merrin], whose first name, please note, is Lankester."

A bestseller on its release, Warner Bros. quickly optioned the film rights to the novel. Originally Stanley Kubrick wanted to direct the film, but only if he could produce it himself. As the studio was worried that he would go over budget and over schedule, as was his reputation, Warner's approached other directors, including; Arthur Penn (who was teaching at Yale), Peter Bogdanovich (who wanted to pursue other projects, subsequently regretting the decision) and Mike Nichols (who didn't want to shoot a film so dependent on a child's performance). The studio eventually hired Mark Rydell, and where in final talks on the project when Blattey convinced the studio to watch the just released The French Connection (1971), directed by William Friedkin. Friedkin was supposed to attend a dinner the night he received Blatty's screenplay, when, out of curiosity, he started reading the first few pages and ended up missing his dinner engagement completely. Impressed with the Academy Award-winning picture and Blattey's endoresment, Friedkin was hired to helm The Exorcist.

Demon: I'm not Regan.
Father Damien Karras: Well, then let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.
Demon: And I'm the Devil! Now kindly undo these straps.
Father Damien Karras: If you're the Devil, why not make the straps disappear?
Demon: That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras.

Top and Above:   Regan's mother Chris is horrified at the "changes" in her daughter, and in desperation seeks out the help of Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) a priest struggling with his own faith.

Pamelyn Ferdin, a veteran of science fiction and supernatural drama, was a candidate for the role of Regan, but was ultimately turned down because her career thus far had made her too familiar to the public. April Winchell was considered, until she developed pyelonephritis, which caused her to be hospitalized and ultimately taken out of consideration. Denise Nickerson, who played Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, was considered, but the material troubled her parents too much, and they pulled her out of consideration. Although the agency representing Linda Blair did not send her to audition for the role, Blair's mother took her to meet with Warner Bros.'s casting department and then with Friedkin, who loved her energy and cast her in the challenging role of Regan MacNeil. 

Jane Fonda, Audrey Hepburn (who was Friedkin's first choice), and Anne Bancroft were under consideration for the role of Chris. Blatty also suggested his friend, Shirley MacLaine, for the part, but Friedkin was hesitant to cast her, given her lead role in another possession film, The Possession of Joel Delaney (1971) two years prior. Ellen Burstyn received the part after she phoned Friedkin and emphatically stated she was going to play Chris. Warner Bros. wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Father Lankester Merrin, but Friedkin immediately vetoed this by stating it would become a "Brando movie." Jack Nicholson was also up for the part of Karras (although Friedkin reportedly thought he was "too unholy" to ever play a priest), before Stacy Keach was cast in role. Sometime later, Friedkin spotted Miller following a performance of Miller's play That Championship Season in New York, and even though Miller had never acted in a film, Keach's contract was bought out by Warner Bros, and Miller was signed to play the part. Legendary Swedish actor Max von Sydow was always William Friedkin's first choice to play Father Merrin. Although at that point in his career von Sydow was usually typecast in the villian role (including being considered play the now-iconic Dr No in the James Bond debut film, Dr. No), Friedkin eventaully persuaded the studio to hire him. Despite playing the title role, von Sydow had less screen time than the rest of the main cast.

Friedkin originally intended to use Blair's voice, electronically deepened and roughened, for the demon's dialogue. Although Friedkin felt this worked fine in some places, he felt scenes with the demon confronting the two priests lacked the dramatic power required and selected legendary radio actress Mercedes McCambridge, an experienced voice actress, to provide the demon's voice. 

[repeated lines]
Father Merrin, Father Damien Karras: The Power of Christ compels you!

Top:   Father Joseph Dyer (Father William O'Malley), a close friend of Karras's who tries to help him deal with his mother's death and reaffirm Karras's faith; 

Above:   Lieutenant William F. Kinderman (Lee J Cobb) a police detective investigating the death of Burke Dennings.

Principal photography for The Exorcist began on August 14, 1972, in New York (as a stand-in for Washington DC). The shooting schedule was estimated to run 105 days, but ultimately ran over 200! Friedkin went to some extraordinary lengths, reminiscent of some directors from the old Hollywood directing style, manipulating the actors, to get the genuine reactions he wanted. Yanked violently around in harnesses, both Blair and Burstyn suffered back injuries and their painful screams went right into the film. Burstyn in particular injured her back after landing on her coccyx when a stuntman jerked her via cable during the scene when Regan slaps her mother, and although the injury did not cause permanent damage, Burstyn was upset the shot of her screaming in pain was used in the film.

Miller also frequently experienced Friedkin's "unique" style of actor-motivation. Miller stated that he had a major verbal confrontation with Friedkin after the director fired a gun near his ear to get an authentic reaction from him while listening to taped recording of Regan's demonic speech. He told Friedkin that he is an actor, and that he didn't need a gun to act surprised or startled. Later for the scene where Regan projectile vomits at Father Karras only required one take. The vomit (which was thick green-pea soup) was intended to hit him on the chest. Instead, the plastic tubing that sprayed the vomit accidentally misfired, hitting him in the face. The look of shock and disgust while wiping away the vomit is genuine!

After asking Reverend William O'Malley if he trusted him and being told yes, Friedkin slapped him hard across the face before a take to generate a deeply solemn reaction that was used in the film as a very emotional Father Dyer read last rites to Father Karras; this offended the many Catholic crew members on the set.

TRIVIA:   On the first day of filming the exorcism sequence, Linda Blair's delivery of her foul-mouthed dialogue so disturbed the gentlemanly Max von Sydow that he actually forgot his lines.

Top and Above:   Father Merrin and Karras perform the rites of exorcism to save Regan!

The actual residence in Georgetown that is used for the exterior shots has a rather large yard between it and the infamous steps (located at the corner of Prospect St NW and 36th St NW, leading down to M Street NW), with the window that leads to Regan's room being at least 40 feet from the top of the steps. This distance would make it impossible for anyone "thrown" from the window to actually land on the steps, so for the production, the set decorators added a false wing to the house, so that Regan's supposed window would in fact be close to the infamous steps. The stairs were then padded with 1/2"-thick rubber to film the death of the character Father Karras. The stuntman tumbled down the stairs twice, and both times Georgetown University students charged people around $5 each to watch the stunt from the rooftops.

Exteriors of the MacNeill house were filmed at 36th and Prospect in Washington, using a family home and a false wall to convey the home's thrust toward the steps, with the interiors created on sound stage at CECO Studios in Manhattan. The refrigerated bedroom set was cooled with four air conditioners and temperatures would plunge below 30 degrees. It was so cold that perspiration would freeze on some of the cast and crew. On one occasion the air was saturated with moisture resulting in a thin layer of snow falling on the set before the crew arrived for filming. Blair, who was only in a thin nightgown, says to this day she cannot stand being cold.

The Exorcist contained a number of special effects, engineered by maestro makeup artist Dick Smith. In order to make Max von Sydow appear much older than his then age of 44, Smith applied generous amounts of stipple to von Sydow's forehead, eyes and neck. His facial skin was then manually stretched as liquid latex was applied. When the latex dried, his taut skin was then released causing the film of rubber to corrugate. This daily make-up procedure lasted three hours and was apparently the cause of much anguish for von Sydow. In one scene from the film, von Sydow is actually wearing more makeup than Blair! In the scene where the words "help me" arise out of Regan's torso, the effect was achieved by constructing a foam latex replica of actress Linda Blair's belly, writing the words out with a paint brush and cleaning fluid, then filming the words as they formed from the chemical reaction. Special effects artist Dick Smith then heated the forming blisters with a blow dryer, causing them to deflate. When the film was run backwards, it appeared as though the words were rising out of young Regan's skin in an attempt to summon intervention. 

Above:   In a last, desperate act, Karras sacrifices himself to save Regan!

Actress Mercedes McCambridge, who provided the voice of the demon, insisted on swallowing raw eggs and chain smoking to alter her vocalizations. Furthermore, the actress who had problems with alcohol abuse in the past, wanted to drink whiskey as she knew alcohol would distort her voice even more, and create the crazed state of mind of the character. As she was giving up sobriety, she insisted that her priest be present to counsel her during the recording process. At Friedkin's direction, McCambridge was also bound to a chair with pieces of a torn sheet at her neck, arms, wrists, legs and feet to get a more realistic sound of the demon struggling against its restraints. McCambridge later recalled the experience as one of horrific rage, while Friedkin admitted that her performance - as well as the extremes which the actress put herself through to gain authenticity -terrifies the director to this day. McCambridge later had to sue Warner Bros for credit as the voice of the demon. Friedkin, on the Diane Riehm Show in 2012, said that originally McCambridge didn't want a credit, saying that she wanted the audience to believe the voice was Regan's. However, after it was released she changed her mind, and was given the credit.

As advised by a studio executive, Friedkin made several cuts to the movie prior to the release, citing that the scenes were unnecessary. This offended Blatty, who thought these scenes formed the heart of the movie. Blatty even refused to speak to Friedkin for some time, but they eventually made amends. Many years later, when the immense popularity of the movie warranted a re-release, Friedkin agreed to re-evaluate some of the deleted scenes and put several of them back as a favor to Blatty, creating an extended "Version You've Never Seen". By his own admission, Friedkin tends to see this extended version as his favorite. Amongst one of the scenes cut included the infamous "spider-walk" scene performed by contortionist Linda R. Hager. Friedkin deleted this scene because it was technically ineffective due to the visible wires suspending Hager in a backward-arched position as she descends the stairs. According to Friedkin, "I cut it when the film was first released because this was one of those effects that did not work as well as others, and I was only able to save it for the re-release with the help of computer graphic imagery."

TRIVIA:   After several reissues, The Exorcist eventually grossed $232,671,011 in North America, which if adjusted for inflation, would be the ninth highest-grossing film of all time and the top-grossing R-rated film of all time. To date, it has a total gross of $441,071,011 worldwide.

Top:   Director William Friedkin;

Above:   Friedkin on the refrigerated bedroom set with Max von Sydow

Upon its December 26, 1973, release, The Exorcist received mixed reviews from critics, "ranging from 'classic' to 'claptrap'." Stanley Kauffmann, in The New Republic, wrote, "This is the scariest film I've seen in years—the only scary film I've seen in years ... If you want to be shaken—and I found out, while the picture was going, that that's what I wanted—then The Exorcist will scare the… (shit) out of you." Variety noted that it was "an expert telling of a supernatural horror story ... The climactic sequences assault the senses and the intellect with pure cinematic terror." Roger Ebert gave the film a 4-out-of-4 star review, praising the actors (particularly Burstyn) and the convincing special effects but at the end of the review wrote, "I am not sure exactly what reasons people will have for seeing this movie; surely enjoyment won’t be one, because what we get here aren’t the delicious chills of a Vincent Price thriller, but raw and painful experience. Are people so numb they need movies of this intensity in order to feel anything at all?" Conversly Vincent Canby, writing in The New York Times, dismissed The Exorcist as "a chunk of elegant occultist claptrap ... a practically impossible film to sit through ... It establishes a new low for grotesque special effects ..."

Nevertheless, The Exorcist was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1973, being the first horror to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The Exorcist eventually won two Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay for William Peter Blatty and Best Sound for Robert Knudson and Chris Newman. The Exorcist was also nominated for seven catergories at the 31st Golden Globes ceremony in 1973, and winning four for; Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (for Linda Blair), Best Screenplay (for William Peter Blatty), Best Director (for William Friedkin), Best Motion Picture – Drama.

The success of The Exorcist inspired a string of possession-related films worldwide. The first was Beyond the Door, a 1974 Italian film with Juliet Mills as a woman possessed by the devil. It appeared in the U.S. one year later. Also in 1974, a Turkish film, Seytan (Turkish for Satan; the original film was also shown with the same name), is an almost scene-for-scene remake of the original. The same year in Germany, the exorcism-themed film Magdalena, vom Teufel besessen was released. In 1975, Britain released The Devil Within Her (also called I Don't Want to Be Born) with Joan Collins as an exotic dancer who gives birth to a demon-possessed child. Similarly, a blaxploitation film was released in 1974 titled Abby. While the films Seytan and Magdalena, vom Teufel besessen were protected from prosecution by the laws of their countries of origin, Abby's producers (filming in Louisiana) were sued by Warner. The film was pulled from theaters, but not before making $4 million at the box office. 

Above:   Friedkin with actress Linda Blair at the 40th Anniversary of The Exorcist

After the film's success, other exorcism films and sequels to The Exorcist appeared. John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic was released in 1977, and revisited Regan four years after her initial ordeal. The plot dealt with an investigation into the legitimacy of Merrin's exorcism of Regan in the first film. In flashback sequences, we see Regan giving Merrin his fatal heart attack, as well as scenes from the exorcism of a young boy named Kokumo in Africa many years earlier. The film was so sharply criticized that director John Boorman reedited the film for a secondary release immediately after its premiere. The Exorcist III appeared in 1990, written and directed by Blatty himself from his own 1983 novel Legion. Jumping past the events of Exorcist II, this book and film presented a continuation of Karras' story. Following the precedent set in The Ninth Configuration, Blatty turned a supporting character from the first film—in this case, Kinderman—into the chief protagonist. Though the characters of Karras and Kinderman were acquainted during the murder investigation in The Exorcist and Kinderman expressed fondness for Karras, in Exorcist III Blatty has Kinderman remembering Karras as his "best friend". Jason Miller reprised his Academy Award-nominated role in The Exorcist for this film.

A prequel film attracted attention and controversy even before its release in 2004; it went through a number of directorial and script changes, such that two versions were ultimately released. John Frankenheimer was originally hired as director for the project, but withdrew before filming started due to health concerns. He died a month later. Paul Schrader replaced him. Upon completion the studio rejected Schrader's version as being too slow. Renny Harlin was then hired as director. Harlin reused some of Schrader's footage but shot mostly new material to create a more conventional horror film. Harlin's new version Exorcist: The Beginning was released, but was not well received. Nine months later Schrader's original version, retitled Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, was given a small theatrical release. It received better, but still mostly negative, critical responses. Both films were made available on DVD. Like Exorcist II: The Heretic, both films made significant changes from the original storyline. The plot of these films centered on an exorcism that Father Merrin had performed as a young priest in Africa, many years prior to the events in The Exorcist. This exorcism was first referred to in The Exorcist, and in the first sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic, flashback scenes were shown of Merrin exorcising the demon Pazuzu from an African boy named Kokumo. Although the plot for both prequels Beginning and Dominion centered around Merrin's exorcism in Africa, they both took a significant departure from the original storyline, making no effort to be faithful to original details. For example: the African boy, though he appeared in the film was not named Kokomu, and eventually discovered not to actually be the possessed character.

On January 22, 2016, 20th Century Fox Television announced they were developing a television series of The Exorcist, with the series premiering on September 23, 2016. Starring Alfonso Herrera and Ben Daniels as Father Tomas Ortega and Father Marcus Keane respectively, the series follows Angela (an older Regan MacNeil played by Geena Davis), who is plagued by increasingly frightening nightmares, her husband is slowly losing his mind, her older daughter spends her time locked in her room and her younger daughter hears strange noises from inside the walls. The two priests are brought together, as all their fates become entangled in a battle against an ancient force of evil! 

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   87%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - December 22nd

"THE MUMMY" released in 1932

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An ancient Egyptian priest called Imhotep (Boris Karloff) is revived when an archaeological expedition in 1921, led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), finds Imhotep's mummy. Imhotep had been mummified alive for attempting to resurrect his forbidden lover, the princess Ankh-es-en-amon. Whemple's friend, Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) inspects the mummy and exclaims "The viscera were not removed. The usual scar made by the embalmers knife is not there." Sir Joseph Wimple responds, "I guessed as much." Muller then deduces that Imhotep was buried alive for sacrilege. Despite Muller's warning, Sir Joseph's assistant Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher) reads aloud an ancient life-giving scroll – the Scroll of Thoth. Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists, taking the Scroll of Thoth, and prowls Cairo seeking the modern reincarnation of Ankh-es-en-amon.

10 years later, Imhotep is masquerading as a modern Egyptian named Ardath Bey. He calls upon Sir Joseph's son, Frank (David Manners) and Prof. Pearson (Leonard Mudie). He shows them where to dig to find Ankh-es-en-amon's tomb. The archaeologists find the tomb, give the mummy and the treasures to the Cairo Museum, and thank Ardath Bey for the information.

Imhotep encounters Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann), a woman bearing a striking resemblance to the Princess. Believing her to be Ankh-es-en-amon's reincarnation, he attempts to kill her, with the intention of mummifying her, resurrecting her, and making her his bride. She is saved when she remembers her past life and prays to the goddess Isis to save her. The statue of Isis raises its arm and emits a beam of light that sets the Scroll of Thoth on fire. This breaks the spell that had given Imhotep his immortality, causing him to age rapidly and then crumble to dust. At the urging of Dr. Muller, Frank calls Helen back to the world of the living while the Scroll of Thoth continues to burn.

Doctor Muller: Look - the sacred spells which protect the soul in its journey to the underworld have been chipped off the coffin. So Imhotep was sentenced to death not only in this world, but in the next.
Assistant: Maybe he got too gay with the vestal virgins in the temple.
Doctor Muller: Possibly.

Top:   The immortal villain Imhotep (Boris Karloff);

Above:   Egyptologist Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) with his assistant
Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher)

Inspired by the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the Curse of the Pharaohs, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. commissioned story editor Richard Schayer to find a literary novel to form a basis for an Egyptian-themed horror film, just as the novels Dracula and Frankenstein informed their 1931 films Dracula and Frankenstein.  Schayer eventually found none, but were inspired by another figure from histort, famed occultist Alessandro Cagliostro, and wrote a nine-page treatment with writer Nina Wilcox Putnam entitled Cagliostro - set in San Francisco, the story was about a 3,000-year-old magician who survives by injecting nitrates instead of via supernatural cause like with Imhotep's case. Laemmle was pleased with these ideas, and he hired John L. Balderston to write the script (having contributed to the screenplays for Dracula and Frankenstein). Ironically, Balderston, a history enthusiast, was actually present at the opening of Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb as a foreign correspondent for New York World, and was inspired him to change the setting and plot of the film to feature an Egyptian mummy.

Karl Freund, the cinematographer on Dracula, was hired to direct, making this his first film in the United States as a director, with Universal casting it's latest star Boris Karloff as the title character, Imhotep. Cast as Imhotep's long lost love, Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon, was contract star Zita Johann. Having already garnered a reputation for being a "difficult" actress during her tenure at both MGM and RKO, Universal later signed Johann to star in Laughing Boy (based on the 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Oliver La Farge). However, when no suitable leading man could be found (even with Johann ironically suggesting Humphrey Bogart for the part!), the film went into turnaround, with Johann still owing Universal a picture - she agreed to fulfill her contractual obligation with The Mummy.

Sir Joseph Whemple: [translating inscription on box] "Death... eternal punishment... for... anyone... who... opens... this... casket. In the name... of Amon-Ra... the king of the gods." Good heavens, what a terrible curse!
Ralph Norton: [eagerly] Well, let's see what's inside!

Top:   The reincarnation of Princess Ankh-es-en-Amon, Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann);

Above:   Helen's love interest, the dashing Frank Whemple (David Manners)

Throughout the film's production, there was great tension between Johann and director Freund, who disliked each other immensely. According to Johann, on the first day of filming Freund attempted to portray her to the producers as a temperamental actress who was very hard to work with. Johann further recalled Freund's treatment of her years later, stating, Karl Freund made life very unpleasant. It was his first picture as a director, and he felt he needed a scapegoat in case he didn't come in on schedule, 23 days, I believe. Well I was cast as the scapegoat--and I saw through it right away! Before shooting started, I asked Freund and his wife over for dinner. He told me for one scene, I would have to appear nude from the waist up. He expected me to say, 'The hell I will!' Instead I said, 'Well, it's all right with me if you can get it past the censors'--knowing very well that the censors of that time were very strict. So, I had him there." Freund would put his actress through numerous other indignities however, including putting Johann in an arena with lions while he and the crew were protected inside cages - the scene was eventually cut from the film - and for two days he had her stand against a board so there wouldn't be a crease in her dress!

Make-up artist Jack Pierce had studied photos of Seti I's mummy to design Imhotep; however, Karloff looked nothing like the mummy of Seti I in the film, instead bearing a resemblance to the mummy of Ramesses III. Pierce began transforming Karloff at 11 a.m., applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to his face; clay to his hair; and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven, finishing the job at 7 p.m. Karloff finished his scenes at 2 a.m., and another two hours were spent removing the make-up. Karloff found the removal of gum from his face painful, and overall found the day "the most trying ordeal I [had] ever endured". In fact, so many layers of cotton were glued to Karloff's face to create the wrinkled visage of Imhotep as a mummy that he was unable to move his facial muscles enough even to speak. But most importantly, Karloff once stated to Pierce about his work on The Mummy, "Well, you've done a wonderful job... but you forgot to give me a fly!"

Above:   The Mummy captures Helen, planning to mummify her, resurrect her, and making her his bride!

A lengthy and detailed flashback sequence showing the various forms Anck-es-en-Amon was reincarnated in over the centuries, was cut down considerably in editing, a move that upset Johann who (being a firm believer in the occult, reincarnation, and the ability to communicate with the dead) believed the longer sequence was crucial to the story of the film. Later when Johann declined to have her option picked up by Universal because of the unpleasantness during filming, her billing was demoted from co-star to the top of the supporting players. Karloff, who was virtually unknown when he appeared as the creature in Frankenstein, created such a sensation that when this was made, only a year later, Universal only had to advertise "KARLOFF . . . 'The Mummy'." 

Despite the difficulties, The Mummy was another huge success in Universal's emerging Monster franchise. Dave Kehr for the Chicago Reader reviewed The Mummy in 2007, calling the film a "creditable 1932 entry in the Universal horror cycle. The drama may be clumsy, but Freund's lighting is a wonder. The charmingly egregious Boris Karloff stars, with support from Zita Johann, a first-rate actress who never really made it in the movies, thanks mainly to roles like this one." Unlike Frankenstein and Dracula, and other Universal horror films, this film had no official sequels, but rather was semi-remade in The Mummy's Hand (1940); and its sequels: The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), and The Mummy's Curse (1944). These were later followed up in the spoof Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). These films focus on the mummy named Kharis. The Mummy's Hand recycled footage from the original film for use in the telling of Kharis' origins; Karloff is clearly visible in several of these recycled scenes, but he is not credited.

TRIVIA:   The film's poster holds the record for the most money paid for a movie poster at auction: more than $453,500.

Top and Above:   Boris Karloff on set with make-up designer Jack Pierce

In 1999, Universal rebooted The Mummy, directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, with Arnold Vosloo in the titular role as the reanimated mummy, Imhotep. Although it is suggested as a remake of the 1932 original, it has a very different story line. However, in common with most postmodern remakes of classic horror and science-fiction films, it may be considered as such in that its titular character is again named Imhotep, resurrected from the dead by the Book of the Dead, and out to find the present-day embodiment of the soul of his beloved Anck-su-namun, and features an Egyptian named Ardeth Bay (in this case, a guard of the city and of Imhotep's tomb). This film spawned two sequels with The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), as well as a spin off film, The Scorpion King (2002). In 2015, Universal announced another forthcoming remake of the film, with screenwriter Alex Kurtzman making his directoral debut, starring Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, and Sofia Boutella as Princess Ahmanet / The Mummy. Set for a June 9th, 2017 release, the new Mummy movie is expected  to be the first in a new Universal Monsters shared universe, to later include the movies The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Van Helsing.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   93%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - December 15th
"YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN" released today in 1974

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Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is a lecturing physician at an American medical school and engaged to the tightly wound socialite Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn). He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather, the infamous mad scientist. To dissociate himself from his forebear, Frederick insists that his surname is pronounced "Fronkensteen." When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania after the death of his great-grandfather, the Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property. At the Transylvania train station, he is met by a hunchbacked, bug-eyed servant named Igor (Marty Feldman) who, irritated by Frederick's pronunciation of Frankenstein, insists that his own name is pronounced "Eye-gor", and a lovely young personal assistant named Inga (Teri Garr).

Upon arrival at the estate, Frederick meets the forbidding housekeeper Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman), whose name, whenever spoken, causes horses to rear up and neigh madly in fright. Though his family legacy has brought shame and ridicule, Frederick becomes increasingly intrigued about his grandfather's work after discovering the secret entrance to his grandfather's laboratory. Upon reading his grandfather's private journals, Frederick is so captivated that he decides to resume his grandfather's experiments in re-animating the dead. He and Igor steal the corpse of a recently executed criminal, and Frederick sets to work experimenting on the large corpse. Matters go awry when Igor is sent to steal the brain of a deceased revered historian, Hans Delbrück; startled by lightning, he drops and ruins Delbrück's brain. Taking a second brain, Igor returns with a brain labeled "Do Not Use This Brain! Abnormal", which Frederick unknowingly transplants into the corpse. Soon, Frederick is ready to re-animate his creature (Peter Boyle), who is elevated on a platform to the roof of the laboratory during a lightning storm. Eventually, electrical charges bring the creature to life. The creature makes its first halting steps, but, frightened by Igor lighting a match, he attacks Frederick and must be sedated. Upon being asked whose brain was obtained, Igor confesses that the brain he supplied belonged to "Abby Normal" ("Abnormal"), angering Frederick and he chokes him.

The townspeople are uneasy at the possibility of Frederick continuing his grandfather's work. Most concerned is Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars), a one-eyed police official with a prosthetic arm and a thick German accent. Kemp visits the doctor and subsequently demands assurance that he will not create another monster. Upon returning to the lab, Frederick discovers that Frau Blücher is setting the creature free. After she reveals the monster's love of violin music and her own romantic relationship with Frederick's grandfather, the creature is enraged by sparks from a thrown switch and escapes from the Frankenstein castle. While roaming the countryside, the Monster has frustrating encounters with a young girl and a blind hermit (Gene Hackman). Frederick recaptures the monster and locks the two of them in a room, where he calms the monster's homicidal tendencies with flattery and fully acknowledges his own heritage, shouting out emphatically, "My name is Frankenstein!". Frederick offers the sight of "The Creature" following simple commands to a theater full of illustrious guests. The demonstration continues with Frederick and the monster launching into the musical number "Puttin' On the Ritz," complete with top hats and tails. The routine ends disastrously when a stage light explodes and frightens the monster, who becomes enraged and charges into the audience. To now save his beloved creature, Frederick lures the Monster back to the castle using the violin and attempts a radical, and dangerous, experiment that will either calm the raging Monster, or destroy them both!

[addressing his class]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: My grandfather's work was doodoo! I am not interested in death! The only thing that concerns me is the preservation of life!
[jams the scalpel into his leg, lets go of the scalpel and it sticks upright out of his leg, grasps it again, then slowly crosses his legs to block the scalpel from view]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Class... is... dismissed.

Top:   Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) continues his mad grandfathers experiments, with the aid of Inga (Teri Garr) and Igor (Marty Feldman);

Above:   The forbidding housekeeper Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman)

Gene Wilder had played around with screenwriting earlier in his career, writing a few unmade screenplays that were, by his own admission, not very good (the story idea of one of those early screenplays would form the basis of his 2007 novel My French Whore.), and began toying around with an idea for an original story involving the grandson of Victor Frankenstein inheriting his grandfather's mansion and his research. While writing his story, he was approached by his agent (and future film mogul) Mike Medavoy who suggested he make a film with Medavoy's two new clients, actor Peter Boyle and comedian Marty Feldman. Wilder mentioned his Frankenstein idea, and within a few days, sent Medavoy four pages of his idea. Impressed with the pages, Medavoy encouraged Wilder approach Mel Brooks about directing. Wilder, who had already talked to Brooks about the idea early on, called Brooks, who told him that it seemed like a "cute" idea but showed little interest. Though Wilder believed that Brooks would not direct a film that he did not write himself, he again approached Brooks a few months later, when the two of them were shooting Blazing Saddles. Brooks later recalled in 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times that,

"I was in the middle of shooting the last few weeks of Blazing Saddles somewhere in the Antelope Valley, and Gene Wilder and I were having a cup of coffee and he said, I have this idea that there could be another Frankenstein. I said not another — we've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law, we don't need another Frankenstein. His idea was very simple: What if the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with the family whatsoever. He was ashamed of those wackos. I said, "That's funny.""

Agreeing to write the screenplay together, Wilder and Brooks met nightly at Wilder's bungalow at the Bel Air Hotel. During the writing process, both men got into an terrific fight, with Brooks' throwing a huge temper tantrum, yelling and raging and eventually storming out of Wilder's apartment. Roughly ten minutes later, Wilder's phone rang - the caller was Brooks, who had this to say: "WHO WAS THAT MADMAN YOU HAD IN YOUR HOUSE? I COULD HEAR THE YELLING ALL THE WAY OVER HERE. YOU SHOULD NEVER LET CRAZY PEOPLE INTO YOUR HOUSE - DON'T YOU KNOW THAT? THEY COULD BE DANGEROUS." That, as Wilder later put it, was "Mel's way of apologizing".

TRIVIA:   The shifting hump on Igor's back was an ad-libbed gag of Marty Feldman's. He had surreptitiously been shifting the hump back and forth for several days when cast members finally noticed. It was then added to the script.

Top:   Frederick's selfish fiancee, Elizabeth Benning (Madeline Kahn):

Above:   The towns constable, Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars)

With a firm intention to satirize the classic Universal monster movies of the 50's, Brooks planned to shot the entire film in black and white, which the Columbia Pictures (the original studio producing the film) objected to. Then, according to Brooks, the studio tried tricking him into shooting the film in color. "They said 'Okay, we'll make it in black and white, but on color stock so that we can show it in Peru, which just got color. And I said 'No. No because you'll screw me. You will say this and then, in order to save the company, you will risk a lawsuit and you will print everything in color. It's gotta be on... black & white thick film." In addition, Columbia were only willing to spend $1.7 million on the films budget, not the $2.3 million Brooks had wanted. Brooks would eventually take Young Frankenstein to 20th Century Fox for financing and distribution, where then-studio chair Alan Ladd Jr. was far more accommodating. Not only did he grant the movie a higher budget ($2.8 million), Ladd Jr. later signed both Wilder and Brooks to five year contracts at the studio!

With Wilder set to play the young Frederick "Fronkensteen" Frankenstein, co-stars Peter Boyle (playing the Monster) and Marty Feldman (as Frederick's hunchback lab assistant, Igor) were cast initially due to their mutual agent - Medavoy - having a deal with the movie studio. Gene Hackman (who would have a cameo as the Blind Man) learned of the film through Wilder - the pair were frequent tennis partners - and requested a role, because he had wanted to try comedy. A future frequent collaborator of Brooks, Cloris Leachman, was soon cast as the forbidding housekeeper Frau Blücher. According to Leachman, Brooks once joked that Blücher was the German word for "glue", thus the mere mention of her name caused the horses to rear in fright!

Teri Garr originally auditioned for the role of Elizabeth, the fiancée, while Madeline Kahn, was the front-runner for Inga, the assistant. But Kahn ultimately decided she'd rather play Elizabeth, leaving Brooks with the task of recasting the Inga role. Undaunted, he called Garr in and told her that if she could come back the next day with a German accent, he'd like her for the part. She looked at Mel and said, "Vell, yes, I could do zee German ackzent tomorrow - I could come back zis afternoon" and the part was hers. It was at this time that Kahn started having a scheduling conflict with another movie she was filming and had to bow out. So Cindy Williams, who had also auditioned for Elizabeth, stepped in and took over the role for awhile. However, when Kahn's schedule cleared up, Brooks fired Williams and replaced her with Kahn. For his part, Brooks, who usually appeared in his own films, did not appear in Young Frankenstein, at the insistence of Wilder. He felt that Brooks' appearance would ruin the illusion and would only make the film if Brooks promised not to appear in it. Brooks didn't mind in the least, but did however make off-camera appearances as the howling wolf, Frederick's grandfather and the shrieking cat (hit off screen by Frederick's wayward dart while speaking with Inspector Kemp - played brilliantly by Kenneth Mars).

Above:   Frederick and the Monster are "Puttin' on the Ritz"!

When Brooks was preparing this film, he found that Ken Strickfaden, who had made the elaborate electrical machinery for the lab sequences in the Universal Frankenstein films, was still alive and in the Los Angeles area. Brooks visited Strickfaden and found that he had saved all the equipment and stored it in his garage. Brooks made a deal to rent the equipment for his film and gave Strickfaden the screen credit he'd deserved, but hadn't gotten, for the original films. With filming beginning on 19 February 1974, Brooks was initially displeased with the first set of dailies, saying that the film should satirize the look of the old Universal horror films. Wilder came to the defense of director of photography Gerald Hirschfeld, saying, "Mel, we never told him that that's what we wanted. He's replicating it but we want to poke fun at it." Hirschfeld made some changes and the next set of dailies was more successful.

By all accounts, the cast  - and especially Brooks - had so much fun during shooting, that they were so upset when principal photography was almost completed, that Mel added scenes to continue shooting! Wilder in particular constantly cracked up during takes. According to Leachman, "He killed every take with his laughter and nothing was done about it!" Shots would frequently have to be repeated as many as fifteen times before Wilder could finally summon a straight face. But the scene which required the most takes to be filmed was the one in which Igor bites Elizabeth's animal wrap. The reason was because each time he did it he was left with a piece of fur in his mouth which caused the other actors to laugh hysterically.

Wilder had originally conceived the "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene, while Brooks was resistant to it as a mere "conceit" and felt it would detract from the fidelity to Universal horror films in the rest of the film. Wilder recalls being "close to rage and tears" and argued for the scene before Brooks stopped him and said, "It's in!". When Wilder asked why he had changed his mind, Brooks said that since Wilder had fought for it then it would be the right thing to do. When they started to film the "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene, no one was sure what the creature should say. The first time out of the gate, however, Peter Boyle came up with a strangled version of "Puiinin on da reeez!". While still unconvinced, Brooks was finally swayed when he soon saw the musical number along with a howling audience that Brooks was finally confident about the sequence.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [Reading from his grandfathers' notebook] "As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hinderance to my speed, I resolved therefore to make a being of a gigantic stature."
[pause]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Of course. That would simplify everything.
Inga: In other vords: his veins, his feet, his hands, his organs vould all have to be increased in size.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Exactly.
Inga: He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: That goes without saying.
Inga: "Voof".
Igor: He's going to be very popular.

Top:   Director Mel Brooks on set;

Above:   Brooks (centre) with the cast of Young Frankenstein

The original cut of Young Frankenstein was almost twice as long as the final cut, and it was considered by all involved to be an abysmal failure. It was only after a marathon cutting session that they produced the final cut of the film, which both Wilder and Brooks considered to be far superior to the original product. At one point they noted that for every joke that worked, there were three that fell flat. So they went in and trimmed all the jokes that didn't work.

When released in 1974, Young Frankenstein was a hit for the studio, eventually grossing over $80 million at the box office. Critics were also unanimous in their praise for the film, with Rpger Ebert writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, "In his two best comedies, before this, “The Producers” and “Blazing Saddles,” Brooks revealed a rare comic anarchy. His movies weren’t just funny, they were aggressive and subversive, making us laugh even when we really should have been offended. (Explaining this process, Brooks once loftily declared, “My movies rise below vulgarity.”) “Young Frankenstein” is as funny as we expect a Mel Brooks comedy to be, but it’s more than that: It shows artistic growth and a more sure-handed control of the material by a director who once seemed willing to do literally anything for a laugh. It’s more confident and less breathless." Pauline Kael of the New Yorker reviewed Young Frankenstein as, "The movie works because it has the Mary Shelley story to lean on: we know that the monster will be created and will get loose... the details are reassuring: there’s a little more Transylvanian ground fog than you’ve ever seen before, the laboratory machines give off enough sparks to let us know that’s their only function, and the ingénue (Teri Garr, as Frankenstein’s laboratory assistant) is the essence of washed-out B-movie starlet. The style of the picture is controlled excess, and the whole thing is remarkably consistent in tone, considering that it ranges from unfunny hamming (the medical student at the beginning) to a masterly bit contributed by Gene Hackman as a bearded blind man."

In 2006, after the success of his 2001 musical, The Producers, based on Brooks' earlier film of the same name, Brooks decided to create a musical based on Young Frankenstein. An October 2006 reading of the first draft of the script directed by Susan Stroman (who had directed the earlier musical) featured Brian d'Arcy James as Dr. Frankenstein, Kristin Chenoweth as Elizabeth, Sutton Foster as Inga, Roger Bart as Igor, Marc Kudisch as Inspector Kemp, and Shuler Hensley as the Monster (Hensley had previously played a different version of the character in the 2004 film Van Helsing). The musical opened on Broadway at the Foxwoods Theatre (then the Hilton Theatre) on November 8, 2007 and closed on January 4, 2009. It was nominated for three Tony Awards, and starred Tony winner Roger Bart (as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster (as Inga), Tony & Olivier winner Shuler Hensley, two-time Emmy winner Megan Mullally (as Elizabeth Benning), three-time Tony nominee Christopher Fitzgerald (playing Igor), and two-time Tony & Emmy winner Andrea Martin (as Frau Blücher).

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   93%

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